SAGE Journal Articles

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Journal Article 1: Burek, M. W. (2005). Now serving part two crimes: Testing the relationship between welfare spending and property crimes. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 16(3), 360-384. doi:10.1177/0887403405274782

Abstract: Studies that examine the effects of welfare, specifically the program of Aid to Families of Dependent Children (AFDC), have primarily examined the relationship between public assistance spending and index, or part one, offenses. In general, the results of past studies have found a negative relationship between welfare and serious crime rates. To date, however, few studies have examined the effects of welfare on the more prevalent part two crimes. Given that previous examinations have found an inverse relationship between index crimes and welfare spending, changes in levels of spending could potentially affect both categories of crime in unwanted directions. As such, this study examined both part one and part two property crimes in relation to welfare spending from 1980 to 1990 in Kentucky counties. Significant positive findings were observed between AFDC spending and part two property crimes.

 

Journal Article 2: Braga, A. A., Hureau, D. M., & Papachristos, A. V. (2011). The relevance of micro places to citywide robbery trends: A longitudinal analysis of robbery incidents at street corners and block faces in Boston. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 48(1), 7-32. doi:10.1177/0022427810384137

Abstract: Robbery, and the fear it inspires, has a profound effect on the quality of life in certain urban neighborhoods. Recent advances in criminological research suggest that there is significant clustering of crime in micro places, or “hot spots,” that generate a disproportionate amount of criminal events in a city. In this article, the authors use growth curve regression models to uncover distinctive developmental trends in robbery incidents at street segments and intersections in Boston over a 29-year period. The authors find that robberies are highly concentrated at a small number of street segments and intersections rather than spread evenly across the urban landscape over the study time period. Roughly 1 percent and 8 percent of street segments and intersections in Boston are responsible for nearly 50 percent of all commercial robberies and 66 percent of all street robberies, respectively, between 1980 and 2008. Our findings suggest that citywide robbery trends may be best understood by examining micro-level trends at a relatively small number of places in urban environments.